Now Reading: Only 9 women CEOs, 25 women MDs in India’s top 500 firms
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Only 9 women CEOs, 25 women MDs in India’s top 500 firms
India's top 500 listed companies have just nine women chief executive officers and 25 women managing directors, the ministry of corporate affairs told the Lok Sabha. Replying to a question from Trinamool…
The Story in Brief
India's top 500 listed companies have just nine women chief executive officers and 25 women managing directors, the ministry of corporate affairs told the Lok Sabha. Replying to a question from Trinamool Congress MP Saayoni Ghosh, minister of state Harsh Malhotra said the data came from MCA21 filings. Overall, the top 500 firms had 860 women directors or board members, including 738 directors, 22 women chief financial officers, and 12 nominee directors.
Across India's 2.14 million active companies, 1.16 million women serve as directors out of a total 3.9 million directors. The Companies Act requires listed companies and large unlisted public firms to have at least one woman director. However, the ministry said it has not assessed barriers to women's progression, nor is it considering new policy interventions or targets. Compliance orders peaked at 19 in 2023-24 before falling to eight in 2025-26.
The Indian Opinion
The figure of only nine women CEOs in 500 firms is stark, but the ministry's admission it has not even studied the barriers is worse. Blaming law alone misses the point: mandatory one-woman-director rules exist, yet women remain absent from the top jobs. The lazy narrative that 'regulation is enough' ignores pipeline issues like unconscious bias in succession planning and unequal access to operational roles. Watch for the voluntary disclosures on hiring and promotion that progressive boards will now have to back with numbers.
Source: rediff.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
